Volume 22 • Issue 11 • November 2020 Chartered May 16, 1988 The Used Truck Association INDUSTRYWATCH UTA’s 2020 Virtual Convention Contents 2 Board and Committees Was “Awesome” 2 Quips & Quotes 3 Board News & Views 5 2020 UTA Virtual Convention Sponsors onsidering how quickly the Board and others had to put 2020’s Virtual Convention together 6 Bobby Williams: 2020’s Marvin F. Cincluding getting sponsors and making the technology pieces work together, Misty Reis’s Gordon Lifetime Achievement Award assessment may not be an exaggeration. Winner 8 2020 Individual Member of the Year Held November 11, the Convention was certainly informative and well received. Nearly 150 UTA Awards Announced members attended, with many more expected to view the recorded version of the event. 10 YMC Meets at UTA’s 2020 Virtual President Craig Kendall opened the Convention by noting that in 2020 the UTA has had to do Convention everything virtually, without 12 UTA Announces its 2021 Officers and any networking events. Board of Directors We’re all looking forward to 14 Face to Face with Joe Feco continuing these events, 16 Welcome New Members which so many of us look 16 Brooks Tip of the Month forward to, next year. After a 17 Industry Events Calendar brief update on the UTA’s 17 UTA Events Calendar various Committees Craig noted that membership 18 Doug’s Morning Coffee: Twelve Surefire Ways to Avoid Selling a Truck levels and participation by all stakeholders is doing 20 UTA and Cummins Present a Webinar on Cummins’ 2021 Lineup very well and in great shape going into 2021. 22 Women In Trucking: For Sale By Owner 24 The Road Begins We then all took a moment 26 Book Excerpt: The Hocus Pocus of Focus to remember three legends 28 Ricardo Rodriguez-Long Opinion of our industry who we lost in the past year: Connie Clary, of National Truck Protection; Joe Column: Are You Taking Cryptocurren- Galowich, of Inland Kenworth; and Eddie Walker, a founder and cornerstone of the UTA. cies for Down Payments Yet? 30 J.D. Power Valuation Services Update 32 Industry News Briefs Continued on page 4 39 From Where We Sit 1.877.GETS.UTA • WWW.UTA.ORG 2021 USED TRUCK ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS & COMMITTEES www.uta.org/directory Terry Williams President Convention Committee Michelle Ober Vice President Chair – Michelle Ober Mike Roney Secretary Co-Chair – Hal Dickson Brock Frederick Treasurer Dealer Group & Preferred Partners Willie Boyle Chair – Rocky Carden Chris Bridges Co-Chair – Chris Bridges Rocky Carden Amy Shahan Bobby Williams Hal Dickson Ethan Nadolson Elections Committee Tim Ronan Chair – Doug Shields Amy Shahan Co-Chair – Charles Cathey Doug Shields Finance Committee Rodney Stephens Chair – Brock Frederick Jim Zimmerman, Alternate Marty Crawford Craig Kendall Marketing & Website Committee Executive Advisors Chair – Hal Dickson Charles Cathey Membership Committee Marty Crawford Chair – Mike Roney Dean Jeske Co-Chair – Willie Boyle Scholarship Committee OEM Advisors Chair – Dean Jeske Jeremi Guditis Co-Chair – Tim Ronan Rocky Carden Bo Johnson Training Committee Chair – Jeremi Guditis Young Members Committee Chair – Victoria Lombardo SHARE YOUR NEWS with the UTA Industry Watch. Send submissions, ideas and comments to: UTA Industry Watch Editors Brad and Deb Schepp c/o Sentry Management 303 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 300 A Stockbridge, GA 30281 Phone: 877-GETS-UTA (877-438-7882) Fax: 770-454-0029 [email protected] Twitter: @usedtruckassoc “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work Facebook: Used Truck Association in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until Management: brought to a focus.” Misty Reis, [email protected] - Alexander Graham Bell Art Direction/Graphic Design: Laura Carter, [email protected] www.lauracarterdesign.com 2 ach year, I look forward to the UTA Convention because it’s a great meet-and-greet oppor- Etunity. The Vendor Expo allows my company, TruckPaper, to get in front of hundreds of our customers. This year’ Convention will be different, of course, as it’s being held virtually. Even so, network- ing and learning opportunities will also be a vibrant part of this Convention. This past year has been special for me because I was elected to the UTA Board of Directors in 2019. It’s an honor to be a part of the UTA Board because members are selected by the entire UTA membership. The UTA Board is a great group of people, who you get to know on a personal level. You work with them directly to find the right solutions for the many issues that come up. All this is made easier because the UTA feels like a family. I’m looking forward to the insights I can bring to the Board and other UTA members based on my nearly 15 years in the industry, including my invaluable years with Truck Paper. For now, I’d like to share some advice for dealers selling online today, something they’re doing more than ever. And that is the need to provide as much information as you can about the vehicle you’re selling, including engine, transmission type, mileage, and more. Putting a price on the vehicle is a must. In closing, I’d like to thank the UTA membership for choosing me to serve on the Board of Directors. n Michelle Ober [email protected] 3 UTA’s Virtual Convention continued from page 1 The Scholarship Committee announced that the Board approved the awarding of seven $6,000 scholarships this year. All the applicants were characterized as “strong deserving, candidates.” The winners, who we will profile in a future newsletter were Justin Boggs, Sabai Gardecki, Kennedy Kosic, Taylor Pearson, Cardon Riddle, Jolie Turner, and Brenden Williams. The Used Truck Marketplace Looking at how 2020 has gone so far, it was gratifying to see all of the presentations by Steve Tam, Josh Giles, and Chris Visser (all industry experts) painting a picture of a much-improved sales environment. It some cases the numbers exceeded expectations (such as Chris Visser’s observa- tion that September saw 5.6 trucks sold per dealership rooftop, the highest tally since March 2018). We are also rebounding from the depreciation in prices saw in March-June. Economic Outlook Chris Kuehl, noted economist, gave a relatively positive outlook for 2020 and 2021 as the econo- my improves and truck sales rebound. Marketing There were several informative and timely presentations on selling trucks virtually, as well as best practices for marketing them. Doug Shields, for example, explained that while there are challenges to selling virtually the technology that’s needed is already in place. Doug sees a lot of salespeople not using this technology, and instead using technology that we all used 20 years ago. Michelle Ober discussed the importance of leveraging video and how to do that. (For example, keeping videos under a minute, posting them to YouTube, and creating your own YouTube channel.) She also gave some best practices for advertising inventory through photos (pay attention to the background, stay in focus, use good lighting, and so on). After Michelle’s comments a video walkaround hosted by Justin Jordon and Tyler Schik was shown that provided valuable tips on communicating your inventory electronically to prospective buyers. Ian Sifuentes followed this up by discussing the importance of digital finance tools such as digital signatures when closing deals remotely. After the Marketing workshop, the LTA award and the 2021 UTA Board were introduced. Finally, the Convention wrapped up with the announcement of our 2021 convention location at the Opryland Hotel and Resort in Nashville, TN. This promises to be a lot of FUN! n Editor’s Note: Elsewhere in this issue we profile Bobby Williams, 2020’s LTA Recipient and also discuss the Individual Member Awards. But we are going to save further discussion of the Con- vention for the next few issues of the newsletter—there was a lot crammed into those four hours! 4 Thanks to Our Sponsors – PRESENTING SPONSORS – Alliance DriveAway Solutions Auction Time/TruckPaper CAG Truck Capital Commercial Truck Trader International Used Truck Centers Kenworth Mission Financial Services Norton Transport Peterbilt Motors Ritchie Bros TruckHunters.com Truckmovers.com – PARTNER LEVEL SPONSORS – 7E Sales, LLC/SWATT Drive Away Services ACT Research Black Book Coldiron Dealer Solutions (DSI) Hess Auctioneers, LLC Hino Motors Sales U.S.A., Inc J & J Driveaway/Auto Driveaway Systems, LLC J.D. Power/NADA Maxim Next Truck NTP/Premium 2000+ PACCAR Leasing Quality Leasing Russ Darrow Leasing Co. SOARR Truck Master Plus Warranty TrueNorth Companies Volvo Trucks & Mack Trucks 5 Bobby Williams: 2020’s Marvin F. Gordon Lifetime Achievement Award Winner orn into the truck world—his dad was a driver/mechanic—Bobby was surrounded from the Bstart with all-things truck! “My dad owned trucks and had his own repair shop in Joplin, MO,” Bobby said. His first job in trucking was as his father’s “Wash-Boy!” He washed trucks for his dad, his uncle, and even the customers. “The only part of washing trucks I liked was when I got to drive them in and out of the shop!” No wonder, he was eight years old! Bobby Williams’ Remarks on Winning the 2020 Marvin F. Gordon Lifetime Achievement Award Thank you, Doug, for that generous introduc- tion. I’m honored and humbled for this award and recognition. When I first got the call that I was being nomi- nated for the UTA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, I thought, what? I’m grateful that I have colleagues that feel I’m worthy of such an award and thank those that nominated me. I was talking to a young member of the UTA just the other day. He was asking me what he could do to be more successful in this business.